Food & Wine Pairing:
as recommended by Karen Bonarrigo & Merrill Bonarrigo

- High acid foods such as tomatoes, citrus, and vinegar are best suited to high-acid wines, such as Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Grigio, and Chenin Blanc in the white wines or Pinot Noir or Shiraz in the red wines.
- Sweetness masks bitterness and saltiness. So if you accidentally add too much salt to a sauce or if you are serving a salty ham or seafood dish, serve a sweeter wine.
- Rich fatty foods such as cheese, oil based sauces, fatty meats, and pate’ pair best with crisp more acidic wines that will cut through the oily texture to cleanse the palate.
- Hot and spicy foods are best paired with cool, sweet, low alcohol wines. The sweeter wines actually mask the heat while allowing you to taste the spice. Higher alcohol wines accentuate heat in the mouth.
- Desserts are best paired with wines of the same or greater sweetness. If the food is sweeter than the wine, then the food will make the wine taste drier or more tart than it tastes individually.
- Dishes prepared with the wine also accompanying the meal create a natural flavor complement.
- Food should never overwhelm the wine, and wine should never overwhelm the food. Balance is the goal.
- Wines with crisp acidity, dry or slightly sweet, light or medium body, low to moderate alcohol, smooth tannins, and neutral flavor are more likely to combine well with foods.
- Once you have achieved the thickness you desire in your sauce, you may add more wine to enrich the flavor of the sauce which better pairs the like flavors.
- Never use bad over-the-hill wines in cooking. If it tastes too bad to drink, put it in a vinegar barrel and make your own wine vinegar. If you use bad wine in a sauce reduction, you are essentially concentrating the bad flavors you do not enjoy and then pouring those flavors over your food.

Merrill and Karen Bonarrigo, Wine and Food Pairing experts at Messina Hof Wine Cellars, Inc.